Are you one of those who stick to having bowls of fruits for meals or randomly as snacks all day long and yet, just cannot see results with your exercise program? Well, I have news for you..it may just not be the exercise routine to blame here..
While we all know the multiple benefits fruits have, one thing to remember is that they are high in the simple sugar fructose, which is the main reason why people trying to lose weight should remove it from their diet. Unlike glucose (the most common simple sugar which gets sent to your muscles, brain, and other organs to be used as energy), fructose is only processed by your liver.
How does this affect you adversely, you ask? Well, if your liver already has sufficient energy, there is a higher possibility of your liver repackaging the excess fructose as fat and saving it for use at a later stage. And the impact of this is then seen on your waistline!
So, does this mean fruits are totally off the table? No. All it means is that fruits should not be given the ‘eat as much as you want’ label, especially when you’re trying to lose weight as calories and carbohydrates matter.
Limiting carbohydrate intake to 100 grams per day is a common aim for people using a moderately carbohydrate-restricted approach to weight loss. One banana, for example, contains 100 calories and 27 grams of carbohydrates. One apple can contain as much as 115 calories and 30 grams of carbohydrates. If that is the case, eating two bananas and one apple will take up 84 percent of your carbohydrate intake for the entire day. It’s easy to eat 100 grams worth of carbohydrates in one day from fruit alone, and if you’re treating them as if they have no caloric value, you will unknowingly be eating 400 extra calories per day.
Simple Tips to Enjoy Fruit and Still Lose Weight
- Focus on berries, fibrous, and small fruits like raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, kiwis, plums and peaches.
- Enjoy fruits in moderation but try and eat more vegetables. Best time to have fruits is post workout or in the morning (not as a meal) but vegetables, especially green leafy or fibrous vegetables, should be the focus.
- If you are targeting weight loss, try and avoid fruits and sugar for 40 days and see the difference.
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A final note: While fruit is not a free food for weight loss, it’s also not going to make you fat. Just don’t treat them as ‘free’ foods, as that could quickly disrupt your weight-loss efforts.
